Twitter and FB could pretty much stop abuse and trolls. So why don’t they?

I cam across this app today. www.SafeToNet.com , it adds a ‘layer’ over social media to help protect children. Here’s a screen grab so you can see what I mean.

Looks like a great system and if I had a child with a smartphone I’d definitely be using it.

Now here’s the big question. Why don’t Facebook and Twitter embed something similar in their systems, for everyone? Why don’t they prevent abuse and trolling by using very obvious technological fixes? What’s stopping them?

I’m honestly convinced it’s primarily because of these reasons, all of them commercial.

1./ If they build ‘anti trolling’ into their platforms less people will use it. This will reduce their share price.

2./ If they reduce or eradicate trolling and abuse they will get less mainstream media attention. This will reduce their share price.

3./ If they reduce or eradicate trolling or abuse they risk a competitor emerging with a competing platform that allows it. This will reduce their share price.

There is absolutely a technical fix for it. They decline to implement it. There is no possible reason why this would be so, unless it’s to do with them losing value, user numbers, publicity, and so on.

Pretty much ALL abuse on social media is preventable by the social media companies themselves. But they allow it to continue. I’ve love for them to try to explain why.